The Grateful Dead. The Dead. Jerry Garcia. Phil Lesh. Bob Weir. Mickey Hart. Bill Kreutzmann. Pigpen, and all the others. 13 studio albums, 2,318 live shows, a ton of recordings, bootlegs, live albums, Dick's/Dave's Picks, and even one or two strange, early MTV music videos.

Unless you've lived in a cave for the past forty years and/or ignored music completely, chances are good that you've heard of the mother of all jam bands, the Grateful Dead. The Dead are an American cultural touchstone, and were/are renowned for their legions of fans - the Deadheads - and for being one of the great live bands of the 20th century.

What this thread is
A place to discuss the Dead, their music, Deadheads, related bands/acts (Phil Lesh & Friends, Furthur, New Riders of the Purple Sage etc.), new Dave's Picks and other new releases from the Dead's archives.

What this thread is not
File sharing. There are plenty of recordings of Dead shows out there (as the band actively encouraged taping), but keep them off of SA. It's always better to err on the side of caution.

Haight Street, San Francisco 1968

Music, Live or Otherwise

Studio Recordings
The Grateful Dead's reputation rests heavily on the fact that they put on a hell of a live show and were, with a few exceptions, basically on a never-ending jam tour from 1965 to 1995. If you ask your Dad, he'll tell you that they weren't much of a studio band when compared to, say, Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Pink Floyd, or the other 60s/70s heavies. That's not entirely true: they recorded 13 studio albums, and many of them are classics (and some are not).

If you're just starting out with the Grateful Dead and looking for studio recommendations, your best place to start (in my view) is with Aoxomoxoa (1969), Working Man's Dead (1970), American Beauty (1970) and Wake of the Flood (1973). Aoxomoxoa is '60s Dead at their experimental peak, while the other three contain some of the band's most recognizable (to the general listening public) songs. 1974's Skeleton's From the Closet, a compilation of songs from first three albums mentioned, is also a good jumping on point for the casual listener.

Live Recordings
As I've mentioned several times, the Dead were a prolific live band. And they were prolific in recording their live shows - the vast majority of the shows that the Grateful Dead played were recorded by the band and/or by tapers in the audience. Of the 2300ish shows that they played from 1965 to 1995, roughly 2200 are known to have some sort of recording out there.

Every Deadhead will have their favorite show and show recording, but some common and iconic favorites in the community are The Closing of Winterland, Europe '72, Fillmore West '69, Fillmore East '70, Barton Hall (Cornell) '77, and RFK'73. The huge volume of material out there means that even dedicated Deadheads can always find something out there that they haven't heard before. I'm in my 20s and haven't even scratched the surface compared to some people - and I've heard a lot of the Dead.

The band has put out Dick's Pick's, Road Trips and Dave's Pick's since 1993. Their archivist, Dick Latvala, went through the archives and picked out key/favorite shows and oversaw their mastering for commercial release. There were 36 Dick's Picks, followed by 17 Road Trips after Dick's death. The current series is Dave's Picks, overseen by new archivist Dave Lemieux, with 7 so far.

I've been making my way through '82, and I'm pretty much near the end. A pretty solid year. There were some real highlights for sure, some nights they'd still take the music to places you wouldn't expect but it was mostly by the numbers, jam wise. Speaking of Casey Jones they busted that out twice out of nowhere as encores, only one of which we have a board of as far as I know.

Also, useful website is Setlists.net - Dead shows by date, region, country, venue, song, year. drat near anything. If you're looking to see how many times they played Help-> Slipknot! -> Fire (once), or shows that opened with Alabama Getaway but also had The Other One then that's your website.

I'm just going to throw Dick's Picks 19 as the perfect first live show to listen to. It's on spotify and everything. Go wild.

algebra testes fucked around with this message at Aug 11, 2013 around 03:04

I grew up the son a Deadhead, subsequently became even a bigger Deadhead and hope some day to be able to ruin my child's life too!

The Dead played RFK in DC on June 25th 1995, my 12th birthday. My dad got 4 tickets for himself, my older brother, one of by brother's friends and me. My mom vetoed who said "they are never going to die, you'll be able to see them when you get older". I think we all know what happened 2 months later.

But the older I get I realize I am really more of a Jerry Garcia fan than a Deadhead. I really hate to go see these Grateful Dead spinoff bands go out and prostitute the legacy that Jerry killed himself cultivating. I'm sick to death of going and seeing the disgusting lot kids commingling with weekend warrior yuppies.

I'm also really not too into much after about '76. Something happened during the '75 hiatus, I guess I just kind of feel like they lost some sort of rawness, I miss the Merle Haggard tunes and the silly psychedelic tunes like "St Stephen", "Cosmic Charlie", and "New Potato Caboose".

I have another controversial Dead opinion. I don't like Mickey Hart. I mean I like him as a person and Planet Drum is ok but I actually like a lot more of the shows when he was gone. I feel like Billy is tighter.

Also I like studio Dead. No I Love studio Dead. American Beauty deserves to be in the same conversation as Kind of Blue or Dark Side of the Moon. Anthem of the Sun is also brilliant. I even like the albums most other Deadheads don't like such as Wake of the Flood and Blues for Allah. Also Garcia from '72 is my all time favorite album.

Hollis Brownsound fucked around with this message at Aug 9, 2013 around 01:52

I've been making my way through '82, and I'm pretty much near the end. A pretty solid year. There were some real highlights for sure, some nights they'd still take the music to places you wouldn't expect but it was mostly by the numbers, jam wise. Speaking of Casey Jones they busted that out twice out of nowhere as encores, only one of which we have a board of as far as I know.

Also, useful website is Setlists.net - Dead shows by date, region, country, venue, song, year. drat near anything. If you're looking to see how many times they played Help-> Slipknot! -> Fire (once), or shows that opened with Alabama Getaway but also had The Other One then that's your website.

I'm just going to through Dick's Picks 19 as the perfect first live show to listen to. It's on spotify and everything. Go wild.

Added Setlists to the OP - I completely blanked out on that. And seconding Dick's Pick's 19; I had that on in my office the other day while working, and it's a super tight show.

HollisBrown posted:

Also I like studio Dead. No I Love studio Dead. American Beauty deserves to be in the same conversation as Kind of Blue or Dark Side of the Moon. Anthem of the Sun is also brilliant. I even like the albums most other Deadheads don't like such as Wake of the Flood and Blues for Allah. Also Garcia from '72 is my all time favorite album.

I always feel like Blues for Allah is severely underrated. The studio version of Franklin's Tower is very solid, and I have a weird soft-spot for the almost never played live title track.

It's a good album all around. Spirit and Sage isn't much of a song and the title track doesn't really go anywhere, but King Solomon's Marbles is great, and Music Never Stopped is about as good a Bobby song as you'd want to listen to. Yeah, there's only one Bobby song, right? That's gotta put it in top-5 status alone.

It's a good album all around. Spirit and Sage isn't much of a song and the title track doesn't really go anywhere, but King Solomon's Marbles is great, and Music Never Stopped is about as good a Bobby song as you'd want to listen to. Yeah, there's only one Bobby song, right? That's gotta put it in top-5 status alone.

My favorite Bobby tune will always be a 3way tie, "Big River", "Me and my Uncle", or "Jack Straw". My least favorite will always and forever be "Feel like a Stranger" with "Black Throated Wind" coming in a close 2nd.

I've done a lot of bitching here so here's my favorite show. August 13th 1975. This will always be my ultimate Help>Slip>Frank, favorite versions of Big River, Crazy Fingers, and Eyes. This show really might be height of Jerry's playing.http://www.setlists.net/?show_id=0949

It's available as a commercial release as One from the Vault.

I'm also a really big fan of early Dead, I love 69 shows, "Death Don't Have no Mercy", "Lovelight", "Dark Star" ect.... They really lost something with Pig Pen

Hollis Brownsound fucked around with this message at Aug 9, 2013 around 19:39

I'd err on the side of caution, and just point people towards the show/date that you're talking about. While the stuff on Archive.org is public domain (the Dead released it all, so long as it isn't used for commercial purposes), this should stay a discussion thread and not become a dump.

As far as live stuff goes, nothing - for me - tops some of the early, epic performances of "Dark Star". The hour long "Dark Star">"St. Stephen">"Not Fade Away">"Turn on Your Lovelight" from the May 15, 1970 late show at Fillmore East still gets me, even after hearing it more times than I can count.

Well, ok, then the best Scarlet Fire ever is 10-1-94, believe it or not. Great show start to finish, Jerry was even singing ok, and for some reason in the 90's they figured out how to segue between songs just perfectly. There's a point in the middle of that scarlet fire where you just kinda realize they stopped playing one song and started the other but you can't tell when they did it. Pretty cool, and you know they weren't really practicing together anymore (who knows who was even talking to who at that point), so it's pretty impressive.

I've been waiting for this thread... I've recently started listening to the Grateful Dead, since I have long hours at work and I figured it would be a good way to submerge myself in some shows. It's turned into a much more daunting and interesting task than I originally thought.

I started off with VoodooNola's videos on Youtube - he posts full concert videos from all eras of the Dead, in great quality. Following that I realized that the archive.org recordings play on mobile just fine, and I also was granted access to a huge streaming website full of full shows. It's been one hell of a trip from there.

I'm one of those new-wave of fans that digs all the eras of the dead relatively equally. I haven't touched much of the early to mid 80's or almost anything from the 90's (beyond 7-9-1995), I've consistently enjoyed everything. I'm in the minority that I really don't like the Dead without Mickey, however. I feel like the weird polyrhythmic drumming is a signature of the Dead to me, despite how weird Mickey likes to be on his drums. I can't believe nobody ever turned around and told him that floor toms cannot double as snares, no matter how hard he tries.

My absolute favorite thing about this band is that, well, their discography feels infinite. I'm a big fan of the 60's-70's Classic/Psychedelic rock sound in general, and I really feel like the Grateful Dead are the pinnacle of this sound. I love how unpredictable they are, as well. Check out the China Cat -> I know you Rider from Dicks Picks 12... After an ethereal little tuning jam, Bobby starts into china cat, Bill comes in with percussion, and then Phil and Jerry are having none of that and launch into a two to three minute jam. You can almost sense Bobby getting frustrated as he finally forces everyone into China Cat around the 4 minute mark. Good stuff.

Oh my god, your dad sounds just like my dad. Pops always told me that, during the 90's, Bobby stopped being in it for the music and was more in it for the money. I dunno how true that statement is but with him having such knowledge I'm inclined to believe him.

Son of a deadhead here. Pops roadied for the Dead for awhile after getting kicked out of the house and seeing them at Caldwell College in Caldwell, NJ (which happens to be where he settled down after all these years, strange) in some year that I forget and have to have him remind me again. He has loads of stories that I should probably try to get out of him. His birthday lands a few days after that Sunshine Daydream remaster release, so I think I'll get him that and some and maybe I can coax some of those long lost stories out for this thread.

My favorite dead song by far has to be the studio version of Terrapin Station:

They just had such a bigger catalog in the early 80's. How could a show with the possibility of an Althea not be better than a show without it?

Because there's no Pigpen.

Seriously, though, I'm a big fan of most of the Dead eras, except for the periods in the later 80s and in the 90s where Jerry was in really rough shape/strung out. Some of the stuff from like 94/95 is really painful to listen to, with his guitar work all over the place and mumbling lyrics.

Seriously, though, I'm a big fan of most of the Dead eras, except for the periods in the later 80s and in the 90s where Jerry was in really rough shape/strung out. Some of the stuff from like 94/95 is really painful to listen to, with his guitar work all over the place and mumbling lyrics.

Cool thread idea, thanks. I have been listening to the dead for a lot of years now, and I have almost all of the studio albums. I never really dug in to the live shows (and had no idea they were so readily available) so I think i'll start checking them out.

I know there is an absolute fuckton of live shows/recordings, but does anyone have a suggestion on where to start?

I would prefer the shows that have a lot of jamming and less of the structured set lists. Thanks for any suggestions.

After 67 or 68 the dead had pretty well structured shows. I don't think they were really as creative with sets as people give them credit for and that's probably a good thing.

To add a little content, a lot of people consider 5-8-77 @ Cornell University, Ithaca NY to be the best dead show for whatever reason. It's a pretty good show, anyways, so that might be as good a place as any to start. http://archive.org/details/gd1977-0...er.28354.flac16

Yeah, I think by 82 for example they had about four shows they'd rotate (ie: the Scarlet/Fire show, the Playing show etc), but then within those shows there were differences each time so it gave the impression of a limitless number of possibilities.

My vote would be 9/10 MSG 91. Branford Marsalis is guest on the second set and it's pretty amazing.

Yeah, I think by 82 for example they had about four shows they'd rotate (ie: the Scarlet/Fire show, the Playing show etc), but then within those shows there were differences each time so it gave the impression of a limitless number of possibilities.

My vote would be 9/10 MSG 91. Branford Marsalis is guest on the second set and it's pretty amazing.

There are some 91 shows, with Bruce (he wasn't there all the time) that are positively amazing. The energy he could bring really seemed to stimulate Jerry.

edit: I've never cared about the mix, if there isn't enough phil that's something I can live with. But I'll be damned if nothing grinds my gears like Vince being mixed over the top of Bruce.

The best are those 70 s soundboards that are all Phil and zero bobby. They both make you realize how much Phil's doing when he's on, and how little they gave a poo poo about bobby if he wasn't singing.

Cool thread idea, thanks. I have been listening to the dead for a lot of years now, and I have almost all of the studio albums. I never really dug in to the live shows (and had no idea they were so readily available) so I think i'll start checking them out.

I know there is an absolute fuckton of live shows/recordings, but does anyone have a suggestion on where to start?

I would prefer the shows that have a lot of jamming and less of the structured set lists. Thanks for any suggestions.

Seconding the Cornell show from '77.

As I'm pretty partial to early 70's Dead, I'll also throw out the show at RFK in DC on June 10, 1973. The playing is tight in the first two sets, and the third set...well, the Allman Brothers Band sit in on the third set. It's hard to beat that in terms of guest appearances.

That Veneta show is no joke, well overdue for the vault treatment. Everything they learned during the Europe Tour went into those sets, and it shows. Nearly every version is a potential best ever, including of course the soul-searing Dark Star.

I've been hoping for a Deadthread on SA for a while. They've been completely occupying my musical attention lately, which is not easy for a band to do. I'm listening to 11/19/66 as I'm typing this, as a matter of fact! That show really blew my mind when I first checked it out; the band is unbelievably tight, considering their level of experience. Smokestack Lightning->King Bee is the highlight for me.

I'm also really not too into much after about '76. Something happened during the '75 hiatus, I guess I just kind of feel like they lost some sort of rawness, I miss the Merle Haggard tunes and the silly psychedelic tunes like "St Stephen", "Cosmic Charlie", and "New Potato Caboose".

I have another controversial Dead opinion. I don't like Mickey Hart. I mean I like him as a person and Planet Drum is ok but I actually like a lot more of the shows when he was gone. I feel like Billy is tighter.

I'm with ya, brother. I like every year through '74, but after that the Dead took a direction that I don't personally enjoy.

Mickey is a crucial part of their 68-70 sound, but there are definitely some early shows where he's way off. Billy, on the other hand, is probably one of the most underrated drummers of all time, and also my Dead MVP candidate. He's the most consistent player in the band, night after night, year after year, and is frequently the only one actually keeping the songs together. And that mustache!

Here are a few of my favorite shows:05/02/70 - Dick's Picks 8. One of the best acoustic sets followed by a heavy electric set. Killer versions of "Good Lovin," "Dancing In The Streets" and "Viola Lee Blues."04/08/72 - The "Cumberland Blues" was used on Europe '72, and the "Dark Star->Sugar Magnolia->Caution" will melt you into a puddle of goo.11/17/73 - Great show from start to finish with an astonishing Playing->Uncle John's->Morning Dew->Uncle John's->Playing sequence.08/06/74 - Superfunk madness on a hot summer day. Set one is where it's at, featuring a stunning Playing->Scarlet->Playing.

EDIT: I forgot, August 6, 1974 is on Dick's Picks 31. The other nights from that run are great as well.

Juaguocio fucked around with this message at Aug 15, 2013 around 01:08

Pigpen was the 2nd best keys player in the dead. Hornsby was the best. Keith would be 2nd but he brought Donna along.

Pigpen might have been the 2nd best keys player but he's also the 2nd favorite vocalist, after Jerry. I love the riffing he does in tunes like "Love Light" and "Good Lovin", some of that stuff is absolutely hilarious, theres a 71 east Fillmore show where he goes on a 5 minute riff about picking up a prostitute in New York.

Edit: I also love pre 1970 Dead and you're right Mickey was a big part of the sound back then but I just feel like as the years went on he got lazier and the drums in general got kinda bland. 8-24-1968 has the single greatest performance of "Death Don't have no Mercy", it's just soul crushing, in a good way. I can't find it on Archive.org but it's commercially available as "Two from the Vault"

Hollis Brownsound fucked around with this message at Aug 14, 2013 around 22:09

That Veneta show is no joke, well overdue for the vault treatment. Everything they learned during the Europe Tour went into those sets, and it shows. Nearly every version is a potential best ever, including of course the soul-searing Dark Star.

I've never heard that show but I' really interested in "He's Gone", it's one of my favorite tunes and they didn't play it much.

To add a little content, a lot of people consider 5-8-77 @ Cornell University, Ithaca NY to be the best dead show for whatever reason. It's a pretty good show, anyways, so that might be as good a place as any to start. http://archive.org/details/gd1977-0...er.28354.flac16

After 67 or 68 the dead had pretty well structured shows. I don't think they were really as creative with sets as people give them credit for and that's probably a good thing.

To add a little content, a lot of people consider 5-8-77 @ Cornell University, Ithaca NY to be the best dead show for whatever reason. It's a pretty good show, anyways, so that might be as good a place as any to start. http://archive.org/details/gd1977-0...er.28354.flac16

I'm a little more partial to the following night (Buffalo Memorial Amphitheater 9 May 77), on account of that opening Help On The Way -> Franklin's Tower never fails to give me chills. But it's all amazing, the soundboard recordings from that era where you can really hear Phil do his thing are all fantastic.

I was in high school in 1987 and the first time I saw the Dead was 11 September 87 (lol September 11) at the now-demolished Capital Centre in Landover MD, a venue immortalized in the documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot. It was a very solid show, being on Mickey Hart's birthday, a nice mix of covers like "Desolation Row" and "Dear Mr. Fantasy", along with an extended second set jam of Estimated Prophet -> Eyes Of The World -> Drums -> Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad.

I saw them about 10 times between then and '90, the last show was 12 July 90 at RFK Stadium in DC. The first set was very solid apart from a number of technical difficulties between songs (it's an outdoor stadium and it'd been raining like crazy off and on all day). Queen Jane, Bertha, Stagger Lee, Cassidy, Tennesee Jed, and Music Never Stopped to finish the set. Great tunes. Second set opens with Box of Rain (perfect with the weather), then Victim or the Crime and Foolish Heart, neither of which are exactly heavy hitters, but are kind of underappreciated tunes. Foolish Heart has got almost a Motown kind of sound. So yeah, it's a okay start to the set. And then there's THAT RIFF. da DUN da DUN. And all these thousands of people staring at one another, baffled and incredulous as ever so gracefully and easily, DARK STAR IS HAPPENING. They had just pulled it out of retirement a few months before that, playing it just a few times since then, usually at smaller shows. I don't think anybody expected it, the possibility had never crossed my mind, but there it was. This whole sea of people under the open air, the rain had let up by then and it was a perfect breezy night, and Dark Star + drums/space is this massive hippie Cthulu-oid thing that literally goes on for over 45 minutes, finally to emerge with Watchtower, followed by Dear Mr. Fantasy and a rousing Hey Jude. Touch of Grey was kind of a meh note to end the set, but then they played The Weight as an encore, the whole place singing along and grinning. Holy gently caress.

I never got around to another show after that one, and that's okay, that was a pretty okay note for me to go out on.

Pigpen was the 2nd best keys player in the dead. Hornsby was the best. Keith would be 2nd but he brought Donna along.

I can't remember if "Pigpen Killed Brent" was actual t-shirt I saw or just an idea I had. Arguably my favorite Dead t-shirt I DID see was just big block letters "IF I HAD A SHOTGUN, I'D BLOW YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL".

But the older I get I realize I am really more of a Jerry Garcia fan than a Deadhead. I really hate to go see these Grateful Dead spinoff bands go out and prostitute the legacy that Jerry killed himself cultivating. I'm sick to death of going and seeing the disgusting lot kids commingling with weekend warrior yuppies.

Yeah I'm the same way. Most modern "jam band" music leaves me cold, both the music itself and the scene around it. I like to have a wild time every now and again, but so much about the jam band / festival thing is so homogenous and formulaic. At the same time, whenever I come back to the Dead (and Jerry in particular), it continues to wow me. For me, Jerry was a gateway drug to the likes of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, etc. Jerry was playing a deeper game.

I have another controversial Dead opinion. I don't like Mickey Hart. I mean I like him as a person and Planet Drum is ok but I actually like a lot more of the shows when he was gone. I feel like Billy is tighter.

Do you mean just their earlier (66-67) shows, or are there some later shows where it's just Bill?

Also I like studio Dead. No I Love studio Dead. American Beauty deserves to be in the same conversation as Kind of Blue or Dark Side of the Moon. Anthem of the Sun is also brilliant. I even like the albums most other Deadheads don't like such as Wake of the Flood and Blues for Allah. Also Garcia from '72 is my all time favorite album.

What? Wake of the Flood and Blues For Allah are spectacular. I know they're a little obscure but I didn't realize there were people who straight up disliked them. The only album I used to flat out dislike was Shakedown Street, but even that I've come to have a soft spot for.

I can't remember if "Pigpen Killed Brent" was actual t-shirt I saw or just an idea I had. Arguably my favorite Dead t-shirt I DID see was just big block letters "IF I HAD A SHOTGUN, I'D BLOW YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL".

I LOVE bootleg Dead shirts. I had a Box Of Rain shirt as a kid that I adored, and similiar shirt to the CandyMan shirt that just said "PLEASE DON"T MURDER ME" that I wore throughout high school.

What? Wake of the Flood and Blues For Allah are spectacular. I know they're a little obscure but I didn't realize there were people who straight up disliked them. The only album I used to flat out dislike was Shakedown Street, but even that I've come to have a soft spot for.

I like most of Shakedown Street, the first dance at my wedding was to "If I Had the World to Give". I just really don't care for the song itself. I mean it's not the song itself I guess but I hate that it's the only Dead song people put on the Jukebox at bars.

Can we also talk about how great a lyricist Robert Hunter was? I am of the opinion that he was every bit as good as either Bob Dylan or Paul Simon. Just reading the lyrics to "Ripple" can send chills up my spine.

Can we also talk about how great a lyricist Robert Hunter was? I am of the opinion that he was every bit as good as either Bob Dylan or Paul Simon. Just reading the lyrics to "Ripple" can send chills up my spine.

Box of Rain has such great lyrics. I mean, the lyrics are so layered. It's very oblique without being so cryptic that it sounds like bad poetry. If I could write a line as good as "This was all a dreamed we dreamed one afternoon" I'd be satisfied. But a whole song?